Daily Market Update August 9, 2017

Early Morning Update

The Sep17 natural gas contract is trading up $0.03 at $2.85.  Sep17 crude is up $.32 at $49.48.

Summary

Amid bargain hunting, the NYMEX natural gas prompt month traded between $2.783/MMBtu and $2.832/MMBtu, ultimately gaining 2.1 cents to settle at $2.822/MMBtu yesterday. Neil Chatterjee, a former energy policy advisor, and Robert Powelson, a Pennsylvania utility commissioner, were both formally sworn in as Federal Energy Regulatory Commission members yesterday. Given the backlog of requests, FERC will likely start approving certificates for construction on ~10 Bcf/d of new pipeline takeaway capacity from the northeast producing region. Despite the backlog of requests, northeast production has reached an all-time high this year due to shale gas producers ramping up to fill new pipeline capacity that should come into service this year and 2018. So far August 2017 total U.S. Dry Natural Gas Production has averaged 73.2 Bcf/d, and the Energy Information Association’s Short-Term Energy Outlook released yesterday expects a growth rate of over 5.5% in 2018.

Market Update 080917